Too Sad To Cry

On the way back from Stornoway we saw an old Collie doing a figure of 8 in the middle of the road. Stopped the car and put the hazards on but there was an ambulance with blues and twos coming the other way. Thankfully he slowed down but, obviously, he couldn't stop and ended up narrowly missing the dog, which leapt back in a panic. I got out of the car and called the dog but it didn't seem to be aware where anything was so I gently stroked him and guided him back to the side of the road. His owner came out and profusely thanked me and I asked him if the dog was blind, to which he answered yes. I explained that our last dog, Barney, who died earlier this year, was also blind so we had a little chat. He then walked off with the dog but the poor thing had no sense of direction and kept walking into things. Which made me feel a little sad as I started remembering Barney and thinking how astoundingly well he coped with his blindness.

When we first met Barney in 2011 he belonged to the neighbour of the house we were renting. He was a Heinz dog that spent most of his time tied up in the garden with only a wheelie bin for shelter so I asked the neighbour if he would mind if I took the dog for a walk. His response was 'you can have him …..', to which I responded 'er … um... ooh... erm …' because I couldn't have a dog in the rental place. Long story short, we said that we would take him when we moved into our house. While we where still renting we would take Barney on daily walks, sometimes down to the little jetty nearby and sometimes down to Braigh Beach, a nice long sandy beach. The problem with Barney was that although he was 11 years old he hadn't had any training, not even 'sit' or 'stay'. He also had loads of energy and I suspect that he'd not really been allowed to play so if he was offered either a dog treat or a ball to chase it was always 'ball, ball, ball, throw ….'. Fast forward to 2013 and we were in a position to take him but by this time he had gone blind. No matter, we wanted to give him a home where he was wanted and he could lie by the fire indoors. And he was fantastic. Of course he couldn't chase a ball any-more but he loved a tug of war or a little play-fight on the rug. When I took him for walks he sussed that tarmac good, grass on side means bath in ditch so he was confident on road walks. On the shore and on the fields he was happy as long as we frequently called him. The picture above was taken last year and shows the result of Barney trying to help with the decorating …... and failing. After about 12 months with us he suddenly lost all co-ordination and was unable to stand and it transpired that he had a tumour on the brain which was too far advanced so I had to make the call. In the short time we had him he was a complete joy, he loved people despite his years of mistreatment and everyone that met him thought he was wonderful. He got on with other dogs and even had a friend in the elderly female collie across the road. The Darby and Joan of the island.

It's amazing how soon you get attached to a dog and, even after a short time, how heartbreaking it is to let them go.